Are Pets Slaves?

[enso]

The mold magically appears. I think elves put it there.

[Mister_Eppy]

More importantly, why in the fridge? That’s like keeping ghee or catsup in the fridge. Heaven forfend!

[enso]

Mold grows more slowly in the chilled environs.

[Mister_Eppy]

Ahh, I see. We’ve uncovered your plan to slowly grow mold until…what? Zombie Bread!

[popobawa4u]

@fuzzyfungus

I am unsure why exactly it is the case that you can use possessives to describe relationships; but only if phrased correctly; but it is so.

How are you unsure, when your first paragraph explained this very thing? I most vociferously hate possessives in language, and resent that this language practically requires them. I only use your third instance: “shorthand for relational statuses that are held by almost nobody to include ownership”.

@fuzzyfungus

Now, for whatever reason, the use of the possessive only works if you phrase it in certain ways: “This is my computer” and “This is the computer I own” are more or less equivalent, though one is slightly stilted. “This is my wife” and “This is the wife that I own” would not be treated as equivalent, and the latter would raise substantially more eyebrows than the former.

That’s what I was trying to illustrate in an above post:

@popobawa4u

Imagine for example, if in daily conversation, somebody casually referred to their spouse as “the sex partner I own”. Or their progeny as “the children I own”. How much hand-waving does it take for that to not sound creepy? Imagine dropping that gaffe in social conversation and qualifying it with: “…but not own them in an abusive way! It’s truly a very loving relationship.” People will look at you funny and say “Suuure…” while the back away. That’s precisely how I feel when I hear somebody say “dog owners” or some such thing. It makes my skin crawl.

Since “my friend the dog” has agency, it seems rather crude to refer to them as “the dog I own”. That was indeed my point.

[enso]

@popobawa4u

I most vociferously hate possessives in language, and resent that this language practically requires them.

How do you feel about genitive case in Indo-European languages that still preserve a case structure?

I bet you could join a Conlang forum and create a perfect universal language for yourself!

[fuzzyfungus]

Aside from limited territorial concessions for their barbarous ceremonies under the terms of the “Fairy Ring Accords”, I can assure you that fungi have no operational cooperation with elves.

[Mister_Eppy]

@popobawa4u

Since “my friend the dog” has agency, it seems rather crude to refer to them as “the dog I own”. That was indeed my point.

Yes, but apart from referring to them as your friend, in what other way are they not ‘owned’ by you. You make all their decisions about what to feed them without their input. You force them to go on walks as despite having “agency” they’d crap all over your residence if not taken outside (whether or not they wanted to)

In other woids: what specific actions or behaviors do you take to allow your pets to have agency over their own lives?

[anon33466019]

yes, they are. slaves to my kisses.

(to be not so flippant, if you treat an animal as your property, you shouldn’t have an animal. but we have a mutual trade, i derive love and pleasure from them, and they live in an exciting, safe, healthy environment. if my dog ever asked me to let her go, i’d cry, but i would)

[popobawa4u]

@enso

How do you feel about genitive case in Indo-European languages that still preserve a case structure?

I think that it’s great that people like to discuss characteristics or attributes, but “possessing” them seems to favor conceptual relationships which I consider both vulgar and unrealistic. Speaking of “my height” represents a realistic attribute, but “my pencil” does not. It is merely a pencil I use, which has its individual attributes.

[OtherMichael]

Are they free to leave you at any time?

[enso]

Was that an answer to my question because I don’t see one, if that was your intent?

[OtherMichael]

And dolphins. I had a dolphin in my tub for a few days and his whistles were soooooooooo sad, you’d almost think he knew what we were eating that weekend.

[OtherMichael]

These are my words. They are my slaves, my chattel property. You must give them back NOW.

[enso]

I consider great apes as being people and think they should have the legal rights as such. It is much less clear with other animals.

I have friends who spent years working with Koko and signing with her. She’s pretty clearly a (slow) person.

[OtherMichael]

But bread gets tougher in a cold, humid environment.

[OtherMichael]

i derive love and pleasure from them

Especially dolphins.

[popobawa4u]

@enso

Was that an answer to my question because I don’t see one, if that was your intent?

Yes, it was. Words do not “possess” other words either. Words describe relationships, and it seems evident that some kinds of relationships are more or less realistic than others.

[enso]

So how do you feel about genitive case in the IE Languages that preserve case structure?

[anon68952647]

I asked my Border Collie and she laughed at how backwards I had the question.